


save me (cause i'm falling)

by nickofhearts



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Bad Ending, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Muteness, Oracle!Noctis, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 20:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10839273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: Noctis is the Oracle. Lunafreya is the Chosen. Things go about as well as can be expected.





	1. the breakin’ is takin’ me down, down, down

You watch the Niflheim soldiers cut your parents down before your eyes, the red of their blood against the blue flowers of Tenebrae's endless fields, and you _scream,_ the sound of it echoing until it's all you can hear, louder than the gunfire or the clashing of swords, lightning crackling from the sky as if in answer to your cry, and then everything goes black.

You don't know it then, but that's the last sound you'll ever make.

-

The Chancellor of Niflheim comes to see you, though you don't know why. You haven't been able to call the light since you woke up, that golden warmth that used to wash away all the darkness, gone like your voice.

He says: "I've heard your songs could move a stone to tears, Prince Noctis. Won't you grace me with a demonstration?"

You shake your head. Even if you _could,_ you wouldn't.

His expression doesn't change, but the cold touch of his fingers on the underside of your chin, tilting your face up to look him in the eyes, makes your skin crawl. "Tell me then—What use is that of an Oracle that doesn't _orate?_ "

-

You don't want to go with him, but you don't have a choice. Your have no parents or protectors, and the domain of Tenebrae has become just another kingdom-that-was, crushed under the heel of the Niflheim Empire, ruthless and ever-hungry.

You feel darkness behind the walls, the skittering weak cries of things calling out to you. 

You can't help them. You can't even help yourself.

-

"You're not even going to try?" Ardyn asks.

You want to look away, but you _can't._

Ardyn holds the hand of a nameless boy in his, and he cracks the bones open one by one, the boy screaming the screams that you no longer make, but that's not the horrifying part. The _horrifying_ part is the darkness that leaks from Ardyn's skin, crawling _into_ the boy, spreading so slowly through his veins as you watch and he screams and screams and screams. 

You want to throw up, but you can't do that either.

" _Oracle,_ " the thing the boy has become hisses, reaching for you, but Ardyn crushes its skull before it can reach you.

You feel thankful, and then you feel guilty.

-

"Just say the word," Ardyn tells you, touching your face softly before he kisses you—"and I'll stop."

You clench your hands in the sheets. 

-

He takes you along with him from then on, a silent trophy dressed up prettily like a doll, a living effigy of Niflheim's conquests?

You don't know, and you don't care.

You can't feel the light though you've been _trying_ —you dream of gods that shake the earth and wait beneath the sea, but they can't _hear_ you, and you have no voice to call them. You cry hot tears that fall slowly down your cheeks, and Ardyn wipes them away with horrible fingers, though they aren't monstrous now.

"Oh, _Noctis,_ " he murmurs. "What _shall_ I do with you?"

You open your mouth, but you can't make a sound.

-

"Princess _Lunafreya,_ " Ardyn is saying, waltzing into the inner sanctum of perhaps the last kingdom yet to fall to Niflheim's might. You follow behind, a silent shadow. "You remember the Oracle, do you not? May I present to you, Prince Noctis, formerly of the Kingdom of Tenebrae." 

Ardyn smiles as a gasp reverberates through the room and everyone stares at you. "Perhaps you'll get him to sing for you once again. He certainly won't do it for _me._ "


	2. i’ll wake up now and live

(The night before the peace treaty, Ardyn hands you a knife. The implication is clear. "Will you take back what's yours, Noctis?"

You think about it as he's pressing you into the bed, taking his pleasure from your body.

You think about it in the morning on the ride to Lucis' capitol, tracing your fingers over the blade's edge. You aren't careful enough, and a bead of blood wells up. You lick it clean. It's a familiar taste, by now.)

-

" _Oh,_ Noct. What have they done to you?" Luna asks when you're alone, touching the scars on your face with soft and gentle fingers. Fingers that have never known the kind of pain Ardyn shows you on a daily basis.

 _It's all your fault,_ you don't say. _Why did you come to Tenebrae?_

Instead, you finger the knife you're hiding behind your back.

"You're safe now," she says with a smile, bright like the golden warmth that you can no longer call to your hands.

 _No,_ you don't say as you fold her into your arms and slide the knife between her ribs, muffling her scream. _I'm safe **now**._

-

Ardyn claps his hands slowly as he steps out of the shadows. " _Well_ done, Noctis. I had my doubts, but you _do_ have a spine after all."

"You promised," you say, your voice ragged and hoarse from unuse. You touch a hand to your mouth in surprise.

Ardyn laughs delightedly. "So I did." He sweeps his arms wide in a bow. "Tenebrae shall be its own sovereign kingdom once more."

-

An airship drops you off— _not_ Ardyn's—at a home you haven't seen in decades, and the sight that greets you are the fields of Tenebrae _burning._

You laugh hysterically, an ugly horrible sound, leaning against the hanger door like it's all that's keeping you upright. It's only what you deserve, for murdering the _Chosen._

But, Tenebrae is _yours_ again, and you can always rebuild.


End file.
